Historian to speak on Black History Month at UMO

Dr. Freddie L. Parker will be the 2014 Black History Month speaker at the University of Mount Olive. The event will take place in Rodgers Chapel at 11 a.m. Thursday.

The theme of Black History Month nationally this year is, "The Civil Rights Movement in America." The topic of Parker's lecture will be, "The Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina."

Parker, of North Carolina Central University, is a North Carolina native, born and bred in Hillsborough.

He received his B.A. in history from N.C. Central University in 1975, before moving on to complete his masters in the same institution, and then his Ph.D. in American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has authored several books relating to black history including, "Running for Freedom: Slave Runaways in NC, 1775-1840" and "Stealing a Little Freedom: Advertisements for Slave Runaways in NC, 1791-1840".

He has also served on the African American Heritage Commission and the North Carolina Historical Commission. Currently, he is a member of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, the Organization of American Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. As well as all of this, he has also appeared as an expert on several television documentaries aired on the BBC and PBS.